“My microphone was taken out of my hands. I came to my home and cried”, said Melek Mosso, a 32 year old singer in Turkey.
The incident happened on 22 August during her concert that was held at Bakirkoy Aqua Florya Shopping Mall.
She sang her song ‘Keklik gibi’, in memory of women who have been murdered by men. She also announced her support for the the Istanbul Convention and “it was strongly applauded”, she noted.
The Istanbul Convention is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic violence. It supports victim protection and seeks to end the impunity of perpetrators of such violence. Turkey is a signatory but the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has recently signalled that it may be reconsidering its position on this.
After Mosso voiced her support for the Convention, saying the “Istanbul Convention saves lives” (it is a slogan used by women in Turkey in support of the Convention), some people called the police.
“I came off-stage without making it difficult for our police and didn’t talk about it further in order not to make a big thing out of it there”, she said. But she is angered by the pro-government daily, Sabah, publishing an article that blames her for her “heavy political messages” during the concert.
She warned the newspaper that she would go to court and take legal action against it unless it removes that article from its website.
